Alternate 3: Blaze
by BookObsesserNumberOne
Summary: RebelClan has fled to the desert, hoping to find some solace from the tyrannic Wolfstar. But what they find there may be more than what they expect, and they find that knowledge is a double-edged sword. Third book in the Alternate trilogy.
1. Chapter 1

**Thanks for your awesome reviews. I was worried about the cliche of the setting sun, but I guess it worked out in the end.**

Prologue.

I watched helplessly as they began to succumb to the hunger of the desert. The blistering heat was agony to their coats. It might have been comfortable in the winter, but here, in the land of Blaze, it was torture itself.

I knew them. I knew what they were in the way they walked. How the leader selflessly lead them, how each was complete, save for a few scars.

Clan cats. Their were legends about clan cats. Some said that they had come from a far away place long ago, and were close by still. They said that when the clan cats walked, water was left in their pawprints. They said that a clan cat could make a cat disappear simply by looking at them. No bones, no flesh. Just vanished. Gone.

Long ago, the Blazes had attacked the clans in an attempt to take their cool land. They had been easily repelled. They spoke of a leader who changed into a flame and encircled his clan. But this was very long ago.

Most Blazes didn't believe in the Clan cats. They dismissed them as tales to keep the kits from wandering into the sands.

But I alone knew the truth. I was the one who had gone farther than anyone, and had uncovered the secret of the Clans.

The clans had been driven out of their home long ago. They gained a power when they were apprentices. Their leaders loved them and cared for them.

It was definitely different than here. Here, the leaders gained their position by murdering the deputy, then staying alive for six moons. Then they would kill the leader. They would have to fight their deputies many times, and to do this they killed any warrior that they felt like, only they could only kill one per moon.

It may have been cruel, bloodthristy and horrifying, but it was efficient. It was efficient.

Efficiency was what they had to have, the cats who had made Blaze. It was so efficient. All weaklings died, and only the strongest bred. You only lived if you benefited the clan in some way. If you were an old one, you had to give sound advice to the leader. Anytime the leader decided your advice was unsound, you were killed and left to burn in the heat, so your body would be used for fuel. If it was proved that your advice was sound, then they might let you fire burn to ashes, then bury them.

Kits were trained for battle from a very young age. They were prepared mentally by their mother, then either mother or father, whoever was more efficient, would train you for battle. Their was no transition from apprentice to warrior, like in the clans, but if you were an apprentice too long, they killed you as a mental incompetent.

There was no medicine cat. Only the strong lived. There wasn't any mourning, either. They would simply bury your ashes. Mourning was a ritual, not an emotional thing.

It had been efficient. The cats of Blaze, because of natural selection able to go without water longer, and had no fur. They were also stronger and tougher, and healed faster. They had an excellent sense of smell, to find water, and huge eyes, for the night.

Yes, Blazes were infinitely more efficient than the clans. It was only luck that the clans had become specialized.

But it wasn't better. I remembered the warmth of the clans. Not physical warmth, emotional warmth. It was a place were reason, not murder, defined the leaders. Where you didn't kill unless absolutely necessary.

And _he_ was there, too.

I knew i would be killed soon. I refused to find a mate, and soon I would be too old to find one. Then I would be killed as a mateless. But I couldn't ever find one. Not after him.

He was kind, brave, and he could do everything. He had healed her when she was sick. His clan was the best. You got lots of water, lots of food, and it was refreshingly cool.

But for his sake, I could never return. I couldn't enjoy a life here remembering him. I couldn't go back to him.

And I was due to die soon. Oh well. Best not dwell on it.

But then I saw them.

How had they gotten here? How had they learned the path? Why?

But Blaze would kill them! They needed to leave, now! They were clan cats, but the cats of Blaze would simply wait till they were weak, or tempt them with food and water, then kill them.

I had to run down, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. They couldn't know. For him.

Stoneshadow and Waterdapple could never know that I was their true mother.


	2. Chapter 2

Bluestar' pov

The sun, once a friend, was now doing all it could to send them all up in flames.

There was no food or water. Did the legends really say that this was just a bunch of sand, or that paradise was at the center of it? Paradise isn't what one would expect, out here. She supposed that the elders had simply tried to give something good to a bunch of sand in the middle of nowhere.

That's all it was. She may have sounded melodramatic, but in truth, she was underrating it big time. The Desert made the Dark Forest look desirable.

Bluestar had to hold it together for her clan. And almost all of RebelClan felt the same way. It wasn't so much that they were going to be heroes, fighting against Wolfstar, as they were doing it for each other.

Wildfire had transformed into a coyote and was doing her best to shield Wetfur and the apprentices from the sun. Stoneshadow and Waterdapple were walking along, seemingly with some resistance to the sand's blazing heat. Darkfur was doing his best to keep Mistyheart cool. Tanglefur was panting, but her light fur was probably the best thing right now.

Bluestar and Nightblaze walked on alone, at the head of the clan. They could barely see past the glare of the sun, and the air shimmered here, so thickly she couldn't see a fox-length unblurred.

Nightblaze was holding up well, considering the fact that her black fur was clearly causing pain.

Bluestar looked ahead. " Water!" she screeched, for her throat was dry. The clan shuffled toward the pool.

But as they approached, it vanished, shimmering out of existence.

" Mirage. One of the elder's tales that I hoped wasn't true. The desert is killing us, does it need to taunt us as well?" said Waterdapple, panting.

Bluestar sighed. Energy, precious energy, had been lost for no apparent reason. Now the heat intensified.

Pain, thirst, pain, heat, pain, hunger... was there no true end to this torture?

Finally, after a long day of walking in the heat, nightfall came.

Bluestar sighed at the welcome coolness. RebelClan settled into the coarse, uncomfortable, but mercifully cool sands. Darkfur burrowed down very far into the cool interior, and Tanglefur lay out on the surface.

Nightblaze turned to Bluestar. " I feel like a mother who sent her kits to hunt in leaf-bare. Why'd we go into this desert? Better to die at Wolfstar's paws, then to catch fire here."

Bluestar nodded. " But we can't go back. There might be something of worth here. There is nothing there."

Nightblaze sighed ." Why couldn't we have a nice piece of forest to hide in?"

Then she settled down and went to sleep. Bluestar turned and looked out for intruders.

Scoprions prowled through the desert sands, their lethal stings hung high. Lizards skittered about. A tree was over one dune.

Curious, Bluestar went to investigate. It was a circle of palm trees, surrounding a mirage of a sparkling pool.

A mirage? It was night! Bluestar stalked up to the palm tree circled pool.

She dipped her muzzle in casually and took in the supposed water.

Pure,cool, life-giving water flowed into her mouth.

" Nightblaze! Tanglefur! All of RebelClan, come to this place!"

With reluctance, all of RebelClan woke up. They came over the dune in a slow, wandering pace like sleepwalkers. Looking at the mirage, they trusted Bluestar and drank at the pool.

" Water tastes the best!" said Sunpaw, his voice restored by the water.

" Water has no taste, mouse-brain!" said Blazepaw, flicking a pawful of water into Sunpaw's face.

" Hey, that's cold!" Sunpaw squealed, and retaliated.

Bluestar dipped in her front legs slowly, then her hind legs, and soon she was swimming through the pool of water.

Mistyheart and Wetfur joined her and soon Sunpaw leaped in, swimming awkwardly.

" Hey, look what I found!" said Stoneshadow, and he came out of the shadows with a lizard in his mouth.

" Eww." said Blazepaw.

" It tastes good." tempted Stoneshadow, and a curious Blazepaw nipped at it. He purred and started eating more of it. " It does taste good!"

Waterdapple smiled. " We have found our water and our food. By day we will sleep, and by night we'll hunt.

Bluestar grinned. Maybe that legend about paradise wasn't wrong after all.

" What are you doing on the territory of Blaze?" yelled out a strange voice. Bluestar and the rest of RebelClan whipped around.

Three of the most ugly cats she had ever seen were climbing down a dune. Naked, black, and with strange fur tips, the foul creatures stalked toward RebelClan.


	3. Chapter 3

Nightblaze's pov

Nightblaze was immediately on guard. Those cats may have been the ugliest she knew, but they were big. And their ugliness seemed to tantamount to their desert living. Who knew, except maybe StarClan, how long the cats had been there?

But it wasn't that that frightened Nightblaze. She wasn't sure what was wrong with these cats... but something seemed off about them.

Bluestar walked out to the front of RebelClan and faced the leader. " And you are?"

" James, the leader of Blaze. This is Neil, one of our top fighters, and Summer, a kit-raiser." said the leader.

" Strange names. Where do they come from?" asked Bluestar as politely as she could.

" The human tongue." said Neil.

" May I inquire as to your origins?" said Bluestar. Nightblaze normally would have rolled her eyes at this, but here, every formality counted.

" We were once housecats, who knew the languages of the humans. We adapted these names for ourselves." said Summer emotionlessly.

" They are human names?" said Bluestar clearly surprised.

" Of course." said Neil in a monotone.

" Why?" she said cautiously.

" Why be named something like Stream or Eagle? You are not a stream or an eagle, why be named such? Seems stupid to me." said Summer in an identical monotone.

Nightblaze was ready to slice her face off. How dare she?

" I am Bluestar, leader of RebelClan." said Bluestar with a brief glare at Nightblaze.

" Blue_star_? Stars are white, and you're not blue." said Neil.

" All leaders names end in star, and I lead this clan. I used to be blue, but your desert sun has faded me." said Bluestar, attempting to joke.

" The desert sun does not fade fur." said James. " Are you suggesting that, because we are furless, our sun made us that way?" he hissed.

_Wait a second_. Nightblaze thought. _Something is wrong with that hiss..._

" Perhaps you would like to go to our oasis." said Summer.

" Yes. We wish to meet the rest of Blaze." said Bluestar sensitively.

" Follow me." said James. He turned. Bluestar nodded, and RebelClan set off across the dunes.

_There is definitely something wrong here. I don't have any power that would make me feel this way. _thought Nightblaze._ Then why do the cats of Blaze feel so eerie to me?_

She hung back, and whispered in Bluestar's ear. " Pull to the back of the clan, out of their earshot. We need to talk."

Bluestar flicked her head, which Nightblaze took as a nod.

Then they retreated to the back of the clan, helping the apprentices keep their footing in the dunes.

" Bluestar, there's something very wrong with these cats. I can't put my paw on it, but there's something... off.... about them."

" I got that general impression too. But you've got to remember, we're strangers here."

" No, not that they were behaving wrong or looked weird. It's just...something was off. "

" That may be the way they are. Perhaps we frighten them, or disgust them."

" _We_ disgust _them_? They're naked as a kit at birth!" she said loudly.

James turned and glared at her. She shut her mouth. James turned around and continued.

" For all we know, they shave themselves and they consider a furred cat gross." said Bluestar, reverting to whispering.

" That's strange.." said Nightblaze thoughtfully.

" Well, out here in the desert sun, they may have grown accustomed to.."

" No, not that." she whispered urgently. " Did you see the way he glared at me?"

" Yes..." said Bluestar, looking eagerly at her deputy.

" It was off. Like he's never glared before. Like his hiss. He sounded like he hadn't hissed once in his life." said Nightblaze.

" We are arriving at the oasis now." said James.

The oasis sprawled out in front of them. There was a den for queens, set up lavishly, with plenty of shade and palm leaf floors. There was a place for kits, or maybe apprentices, which was near the water. Warriors had spread out dens, and some were just lounging in holes in the ground. Waiting to hunt at nightfall? Probably.

The leader's den, and deputy's den, was set up in the trees, with a platform of some sort of mud.

It seemed well organized. Very efficently made. But there was something wrong.

Only one of the cats was looking at them. What she thought was a she-cat was gazing at them in fear, excitement, or some combination of the two. That was odd. But then Nightblaze realized what had caused her eerie feelings.

Everycat, except for the strange she-cat, had blank faces. No emotion at all. The very young kits, the ones in the queen's dens, were playing, but their mothers looked at them with no love in their eyes, and no hatred. Their eyes were utterly unfathomable.

Now she knew why James had seemed wrong to her. He had shown emotion, emotion he wasn't used to showing.

Why? Why was it that the cats were emotionless? Was emotion taboo in their society, only to be brought up to urgent situations? Probably so. What a boring clan. But an eerie boring one.

And RebelClan was going to live among these cats? To ignore their denmate's blank eyes, and to never joke. From what she had guessed, the cats of Blaze probably didn't have a sense of humor.

Nightblaze had been freed from the nightmare of the desert. Why did it feel like she was entering a new one?


	4. Chapter 4

Blazepaw's pov

Blazepaw was down at the water's edge, drinking slowly. Sunpaw came up and crouched by him.

" This water is StarClan's hunting grounds itself." said Sunpaw, taking a long drink.

" This place isn't. Said Blazepaw. " Everyone's thinking it, I'll just say it. Blaze are freaks." he whispered.

" Not as much as you." said Sunpaw. Blazepaw looked at him mischievously.

" Or as much as you after this!" he hissed, flinging a pawful of water into Sunpaw's face. Sunpaw returned it. Blazepaw leaped into the water, but the agile SeaClan cat was his superior here.

" What are you doing?" said an Blaze apprentice, barely over kithood, looking at the soaked apprentices.

" We're playing." said Blazepaw heatedly.

" Playing?" he said at them, cocking his head. " What's playing?."

" It's... it's..." Blazepaw was at loss. " It's enjoying yourself."

" Like kits?" said the apprentice.

" You probably never played in your life." said Sunpaw.

" I did once, and never in the water. " answered the apprentice.

" You want to try?" said Blazepaw daringly.

" Umm... sure." said the apprentice. " My name is Alexander. Alex for short."

" I'm Blazepaw. This is Sunpaw."

" Hi." said Sunpaw.

Alex waded out into the shallows cautiously, then Sunpaw pounced on him, rolling him over and over. Blazepaw joined in the play. At first Alex seemed scared, but soon he was enjoying himself.

They swam after each other. The Blaze cat wasn't fast, and he swam awkwardly, but his furless skin was slippery, and he had a good grip. Soon they were chasing each other's tails, competing to see who could make the biggest splashes, and pointlessly swimming about.

_Maybe the Blaze cats aren't that bad. _thought Blazepaw._  
_

" What are you doing?" came a cold voice. Blazepaw, Sunpaw, and Alex looked up.

James was sitting at the edge of the pond, with his deputy Sara at his side. Splashes of water dotted their coats, but they payed no attention to them.

Blazepaw stepped forward. " We were playing." he said fearfully.

James looked at him with a smoldering gaze, and Blazepaw looked down.

" You are on the night patrol. Why are you wasting energy rather than conserving it?" said James.

" Well.. I." stammered Alex.

" It's not his fault. We told him we would show him how to catch fish." said Sunpaw.

" What are fish?" asked Sara. " Surely, you did not tell him of a kit's tale?"

" Fish are real and I've eaten one before. " said Sunpaw defiantly.

" Come on Sara. It is of no importance." said James.

Blazepaw's ears pricked. They were getting out of this?

" What is important is Alex's behavior. Bring him to the island, tonight." James stalked away.

Alex looked pleadingly at Sara. She looked down at him and simply said, " You should know better than to play, Alex. He is right. " then she left.

Blazepaw turned to Alex. " Is that your mother?"

" Y..yeah." stuttered Alex.

" And what are they refering to? Are you going to be punished?" said Sunpaw.

Alex turned to her. " No. I am going to go through the apprentice ritual. Only the leader, their dominant parent, and the cat who's undergoing the ritual come. "

" So they're going to initiate you? You're a kit?" said Blazepaw. Alex did seem like he was kit age.

" No. I'm an apprentice. They do the ritual if you're caught playing. Or, if you never play, they do it at your warrior ceremony."

" Seems cruel." said Sunpaw.

" Well, for all we know it's a long, boring speech. Not punishment." said Alex. " I guess I'll find out tonight."

**********

Blazepaw was sitting worriedly in the warrior's den. Alex had been taken off to his ritual, and Blazepaw worried for him.

Fire seemed to be licking the trees at the center of the island. What was happening?

Was this why they were called Blaze? Did they control fire or something like that?

Did Blaze cats have powers?

Sunpaw nudged him and gestured with this snout. " Look."

Blazepaw looked at the shores of the island.

Three cats were paddling out. Sara, James, and Alex.

Once Sara and James had gone up to their den, Blazepaw and Sunpaw approached Alex.

" What happened?" they asked together.

Alex turned at them, his face emotionless like the rest of them.

" My eyes were open. Now I must sleep for the night patrol."


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you to all my reviewers. As for Serpent's Ballet, Alex didn't exactly get brainwashed. But he did have something done to him.  
**

**Mistyheart's pov**

Mistyheart was chewing on a lizard, observing the camp. Like there was anything to observe. There was one emotionless, black, furless cat after another. The place was perfectly run. No apprentices here made mistakes, or played. The kits were always watched, the patrols always returned successfully, their code was upheld flawlessly.

Mistyheart's suspicion alert, once dormant except for the occasional prick in the back of her mind, was now nearly unbearable.

These cats didn't even seem to be cats. They were too flawless, too perfect. Perfect to a point of imperfection. The paradox, so strange in Clan life, was in full motion here.

No. Not perfect. They were all the same, almost indistinguishable, without any emotions.

Bluestar came by her sister with her own mouse. " You thinking about our new hosts here?"

Mistyheart nodded. " Yeah. They're too perfect."

" Far too perfect. It seems almost that they were designed for their clan's life. Like they aren't something natural, they're something strange."

That's when a certain cat blundered out into the open, seeking food. She looked fearfully at the clan cats, seized a lizard, and got ready to run away.

Mistyheart stopped her. " Who are you?"

The she-cat snapped. " What business is it of yours?"

Mistyheart was taken aback. That was a very unBlazelike thing to do. " I'm just curious."

She sighed. " Matilda. I'm a kit-raiser."

" I'm Mistyheart." she answered. " So, what happened to Alex?"

" The apprentice ritual."

" What's that?"

" What they go through when they become an apprentice."

Great StarClan, they might be here all day.

" What happens in the apprentice ritual?"

" They become like us."

" How?"

" By going through the ritual."

Mistyheart growled in frustration.

" Is it common Blaze custom to never answer questions?" she hissed.

" No, but you're strangers. And you've got no right to know how we do things here." said Matilda, hissing.

Mistyheart, realizing her cue to step away, walked away from the she-cat. Matilda seized a lizard and stalked off to her den.

" Weird." said Bluestar.

" Yeah. They've always been so hospitable. James told me the whole of their code, demostrated everything. And now we don't get a say-so about their rituals?" said Mistyheart.

" No, not that. Matilda."

" Yeah, what about her?" yawned Mistyheart.

" It seemed natural. Her frustration. When James got mad it seemed fake, but Matilda looked natural."

" Does she creep you out? Just a tiny bit?" said Mistyheart sarcastically.

" Yes." answered Bluestar. " And I'm going to find out why."

********

" Matilda? You're asking about Matilda?" said James.

" Yes." answered Bluestar curtly.

" Why? Is it custom in your clans that random cats are picked out and discovered, or are you just bored?" yawned James

" Neither. Tell me all you know about Matilda." said Bluestar forcefully.

They were sitting out on James' mud platform. A couple of banana leaves were shading the two leaders, and overall it was pretty cool as twilight set in.

" Very well. Matilda was trained late. She ran out into the desert, chasing elder's tales, and came back moons later with her head clouded from the heat. Our leader then, Christopher, left her in the desert to die, but she lived and came back. " said James.

" Where did she go?" asked Bluestar. She was inwardly shocked by Christopher's action.

" No one knows. She used to mumble random words in her sleep. We think that she just wandered around the desert for moons, barely alive." sighed James. " Good warrior now, since she learned her lesson."

Bluestar simply said " Thank you.", and leaped off the platform.

Matilda had been away from her clan a long time. Long enough for her to leave the desert? Had she found love and stayed? Had she become a kittypet?

Had she come to the clans?

Bluestar sighed, then walked over to Mistyheart, who was having a conversation with Wetfur.

" Could you two keep an eye on Matilda?"

" Sure, Bluestar." said Wetfur. " What should we be watching for?"

" Anything unusual. References to the clans, a step out of place with Blaze traditions, day dreaming... you know. Anything that suggests she might have come to the clans." said Bluestar.

" Why?" said Mistyheart, eying her suspiciously.

" James says that she used to be different. And she ran away for very many moons. Possibly enough to come to the clans." said Bluestar.

" Then shouldn't we all meet together and pool our knowledge of a strange, furless black cat?" said Wetfur.

" Yes. After you've spied on her for at least 4 days and confirmed that their is indeed something wrong with our temperamental friend." said Bluestar.

" Yes, Bluestar. Absolutely." said Mistyheart, and then she stood up and went off to watch Matilda.


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry for the absence from Blaze, but writer's block is at it again. Once again, thank you for the reviews.  
**

It had been four days since Bluestar had ordered Matilda's investigation. Wetfur and Mistyheart were seated in front of her now.

" Who's going first?" asked Bluestar. It was a particularly hot Blaze day, and everyone was panting.

" I will." said Wetfur. " Matilda feeds kits before she feeds herself. In Blaze there are no such traditions. And she encourages them to play a lot, and make up their own games. James stopped her yesterday, asked her why. She said that she was strengthening both their minds and bodies through play, and he believed her. I didn't. She's training those kits to play because she thinks that they should enjoy themselves."

" I also noted her talking to the kit-raisers the other day." said Mistyheart. " She said that they should love the kits, be ready to die for them. The kit-raisers looked at her like she was mad. They thought that no kit was worth dying for if it didn't fight for its own life. I swear she almost clawed their faces off."

" Very clan-like ideals." noted Bluestar.

" And it gets worse." added Wetfur. " She refuses to take a mate based on how strong or efficient he is. Blaze customs demands that her mates fight each other for the mating. But she won't have it. She'd rather go alone."

" What will Blaze do to her if she continues?"

" I'm not sure what the word means, but I heard one of the queens say that they were going to cull her. Whatever that means." said Mistyheart.

" I'll have to talk to Nightblaze about this." said Bluestar. And they each got up and walked away.

Stoneshadow had never liked dreams. Not that he worried that he would say something embarrassing in his sleep. Or worse, reveal Strongheart's illegal kits. But now, here in Blaze, away from Starclan, it was even more unsettling.

Unless StarClan came here.

Stoneshadow was chasing mice through the meadow when the meadow suddenly darkened. Trees and grass turned to sand and went up in a whirlwind. Sand blew and blew and formed into dunes. The sun appeared again, mercilessly beating down.

Then the dream changed. Two cats came over the dune.

" I don't want to go back! You can't make me!" hissed one of them. Stoneshadow saw, to his horror, that one of them was a Blaze cat.

" You have to. His secret must stay safe." Stoneshadow blinked, then blinked again. It was Rosestar!

" Well, its the clans' problem that I'm not one of you! What's wrong with loner/clan cat relationships anyway?"

Stoneshadow began panting in horror. This cat of Blaze could not have visited the clans so recently! He would have seen it!

" Nothing. Merely politics." said Rosestar.

" You're only a warrior! What do you know about politics?"

Stoneshadow flicked his ears. _Warrior? That explains a lot._

" I know enough that you must return to your own home. The kits must be kept safe."

The sand piled back into trees and grass as the Blaze cat and Rosetail seperated.

Kits.

Kits! The Blaze cat had kits! Whose kits? A Blaze cat? Or a clan cat?

The kits could not be Blaze, or they must have died before his birth.

And if they were half-clan, you could see, wouldn't you? They would have been different from the clan cats, noticeable. There were no half-clans in WolfClan, he knew that. But Rosetail had acted like the kits were with the clans. Maybe they were clan enough so the other clans didn't notice.

But why did the clans have no knowledge of Blaze? Such a noticeable cat would have stirred up talk, no matter how hard they tried to put it down. A loner entering clan life? That would never be hushed. TownClan would have talked for moons.

Stoneshadow knew that this Blaze cat had been hidden from the clans, for the clans had no knowledge of Blaze.

And he knew one other thing. The cat in the dream, the Blaze cat who had had kits, was Matilda.


	7. Chapter 7

**Since it's pretty much obvious now that Matilda's their mother, I'm going to end the drama in this chapter.**

Waterdapple was in another Clan meeting, discussing a dream that her brother had last night.

" So Matilda had kits." said Bluestar." And you believe these kits remain in the clans?"

" Yes." answered Stoneshadow.

" I received no similar dreams." said Tanglefur. " Why would StarClan want to make it known to Stoneshadow in particular?"

" That's easy to answer. He's the kit."said Nightblaze, licking her paws and trying to keep cool.

Waterdapple bit her tongue. The clan didn't know yet that she and Stoneshadow were siblings, and she didn't feel like telling them. Privately, she was shocked. StarClan said that Strongheart was their mother.

" To be honest, I would think that the reason he got it was because he knows them." said Wildfire, panting softly. Waterdapple sighed again.

" I agree." nodded Mistyheart.

" So someone in the clans is half-Blaze, and I know him. Or her." said Stoneshadow with a meaningful glance at Waterdapple. He wanted her to tell the clan about them being siblings.

" Then why don't _they_ look different?" she said. That secret could get them both in trouble.

" StarClan interfered with the birth. Made them look more clanlike." said Darkfur quietly. Waterdapple was surprised. Darkfur almost never spoke, ever since Saberpaw had been carried off by Wolfstar.

" Well, I think that we will know more as soon as we get back." said Wildfire.

" Back? Where? " said Bluestar.

" Back to the clans of course." said Wildfire. " Oh come on. How long were we planning on staying here? Until we died? We have to come back sometime."

" Wolfstar has Saberpaw now. It's hopeless." said Mistyheart.

" So we're just going to wait out here in the desert, letting that tyrant rule the clans?" said Wildfire angrily." We're our clans' only chance of throwing out Wolfstar!"

" The other cats aren't that happy with..." said Nightblaze, but Wildfire interruptted her.

"Other cats will do our job for us? If we never come back, no one would dare rebel again!" said Wildfire.

" What's your plan then?" asked Darkfur scathingly.

" Umm... I don't really have one..." said Wildfire sheepishly.

" Correct. Let us know when you have one." said Darkfur. " Back to the subject at hand?"

" I say we confront Matilda." said Tanglefur. " Spring this on her and see how she takes this."

" Stoneshadow should do it." said Waterdapple." He had the dream, after all."

Stoneshadow glared at her before stalking off to talk to Matilda.

Stoneshadow walked over to the queen's den.

" All I'm saying is, letting them make up their own games would give them a sense of creativity." said Matilda to a few queens.

" What is useful about creativity?" said the queens blankly.

" Having fun, Matilda?" asked Stoneshadow.

Matilda snorted. " 'What's useful about creativity?' They can be so lizard-brained sometimes!"

" So you're saying they don't care enough about their kits?" said Stoneshadow.

" Yes." spat Matilda. " Far too little love."

" If you had kits, how would you take care of them?" asked Stoneshadow.

Matilda looked at him, her eyes softening. " I would love them. I would let them play the games they made up, watch proudly as they were made apprentices and then warriors. I would have."

" You had kits once." said Stoneshadow.

" Yes, but I wasn't allowed to keep them." said Matilda sadly. " These kits had parents that weren't allowed within the cl...Blaze."

" The clans. You've been to the clans."

"OK, all right! I've been to the clans! And I mothered kits there too!" she said sharply.

" Who were the kits?" said Stoneshadow.

" Um... they died." said Matilda evasively.

" What were their names?" said Stoneshadow.

" I don't know. They're probably warriors now." said Matilda. " It was hard to see them go."

" Really?" said Stoneshadow.

" In the first few days of my return, I mourned all day and all night for Stonekit and Waterkit." said Matilda.

Stoneshadow barely kept his feet. Nightblaze was right! This cat was his mother! But why had StarClan lied?

Then it hit him. The cat with the water fur. If a cat had water for fur, it would fall right off, leaving the cat bald. Stoneshadow almost chuckled, then something else hit him.

" Who was the father?" said Stoneshadow, his voice trembling.

Matilda looked at him hard, and refused to answer.


End file.
